DC Entertainment Unveils New Logo Ahead of Comic Book 'Rebirth'

Courtesy of DC Entertainment

The new branding will make its comic book debut with next week's 'DC Universe: Rebirth Special.'

It's not just the comic books that will go through a rebirth as part of DC Entertainment's upcoming comic book relaunch: The company has revealed a new logo design that will be used across its entire content and product line.

The new design, created in partnership with design consultancy Pentagram, will make its comic book debut on next week's DC Universe: Rebirth Special issue, written by the company's chief creative officer Geoff Johns. The issue begins the rollout of the Rebirth initiative, which will see all of DC's superhero comics relaunched across the summer.

In a statement, Johns said that he was "very proud that Rebirth will be the first comic book published with the new DC logo. To me, Rebirth and the new DC logo are built on what’s come before while looking to what will come tomorrow."

At least in terms of the logo, it is most certainly true that it is built on what's come before. Look at the new logo, above. And now look at the logo the company used from 1972 through 1974:

Sure, it's not exactly the same, but it's definitely close. That logo was then adapted for use from '74 through '77, before the company brought in Milton Glaser to create the "bullet" logo that DC stuck with for 28 years:

Since the 2005 makeover — the so-called "DC swirl" — the company has revised its corporate look one more time, with the 2012 "peel" logo:

Of course, if DC wanted to go properly retro with its branding, it could reintroduce a checkerboard banner across the top of every cover, as it did between February 1966 and August 1967; as strange as it seems, this was actually a design decision made to try and create more distinctive covers on the newsstand. The branding even received advertisements of its own inside the pages of DC's titles at the time: